Technology Improves Classroom Community

Many people these days lament the fact that technology is decreasing "face time."  Increased reliance on social media replaces more personal forms of communication.  They say that social skills are languishing due to technology use.

Although that may be true, I have found a different correlation between technology use and interpersonal relations in my 5th grade class.  Ever since I gave my students the gift of Gmail, our interpersonal connections and sense of community have increased.

Being fifth graders, some of my students already had personal Gmail accounts, but most had never been exposed.  I was able to teach them the many functions of Gmail, and they were enthralled.  Changing font color and size?  Adding ridiculous smiley faces?  This is the best invention for school since recess!

While my students delighted to learn how to express themselves with these tools, my purposes were focused on improving learning.  I had long been stymied by my lack of ability to teach (and instill a love for) writing.  I love to write...but I struggle to teach it to children.  My students' enthusiasm for technology has taken away the pain of writing.  Now we use paper and pencil just for prewriting.  Once we have our ideas mapped out, we go to the computer lab, get on our Gmail accounts, and craft our drafts.  My students feel so grown-up "sharing" their document with me and their peers.  We comment on each other's writing, offering feedback.  Revising their drafts is now a painless process.  The students love collaborating with each other.  They feel ownership of their document.  They feel the power of choosing who to share their document with.  It increases our feeling of community.  This was my intent as much as improving their writing was.

An unintended outcome of these accounts was student use of the e-mail outside of school.  My students only have each other's e-mail addresses and mine.  I taught them how to "reply all."  As a result, my inbox often has a few student threads in it.  "Hey is anybody on?" is often the subject line.  At first I was annoyed to have to sift through these e-mails in an already crowded inbox.  I was equally annoyed with their poor spelling and conventions.  Then I began reading their content, and my perspective changed.  Students who normally only communicate with each other at school were now communicating at home.  Students who were isolated after school were now connected.  Students who don't normally chat with each other were sharing ideas ("I like cheese" is a frequent idea expressed).  E-mail is weaving our class into a close-knit community.  As one student expressed, "you guys r like wow ya peeps are lol and a little weird but your my friends."

One of my fears was that students would e-mail me excessively.  Although I do need to tell certain students that I have limits, the results of these e-mails have been quite positive.  Students who are shyer in class are now e-mailing me their homework questions.  Sick students communicate with me about what they are missing in class.  Other students excitedly share news from their lives.  I was surprised and impressed that students took initiative to experiment with other features of Gmail that we don't use in class.  One student figured out how to make a form, and sent a quiz out to everyone on the math we have been learning this unit. Replying to these e-mails connects me to students in a different way.  I didn't expect it to feel different, but it does.  It is personal and less formal, and as a result, I feel more bonded to those students.

Such a simple tool, e-mail, but it has created a more unified community.  My students are more connected with each other, and I am more connected with them.

Final

I have completed requirements 2-4.

Internet Safety

1. I read the New Era article "Mixed Signals" under Internet. It had specific ideas for evaluating worthy media and for being safe on the internet.
2. The videos I watched had a variety of topics and themes. There was a cartoon for kids that had the message of not sharing any information with people over the internet and not agreeing to meet up with people. There was a video describing technology use in a school and how it influences teens' social lives. And then there were a few chilling videos about the dangers of the internet--cyber bullying and sexual predators. Overall it was a very sobering experience. My own internet use has been sheltered--first by my parents' internet filter and then by BYU's--so I have always felt safe on the internet and have not given much thought to these issues. It makes me concerned about how much we are a digital nation and how much of an influence the virtual is in our lives.
3. The most important take-away I have received through what I read and watched would be prevention. One of the prominent ideas from the articles I read was to have your computer in a well-trafficked part of the house, and I agree fully. Establishing guidelines and talking about things before they become an issue also seems key. I think for my own children I will have a rule that they do not enter chatrooms and that they only message people that they know personally, in addition to other rules. However, I know that most children are not taught such things at home, and I will need to go over this as a teacher.
4. I talked to my older sister and she mentioned things like having a filter or a cyber patrol type thing and talking to kids about not sharing info or pictures. I mentioned having the computer in a high traffic part of the house, which jogged her memory and she added that the screen should face the door so that anyone walking by can see the content you're currently viewing. We talked about cyber bullying and sex predators. She seemed to think that it's a larger problem than one of the videos I watched proclaimed. She added that she heard that sex predators will network together and talk about what they were able to achieve. Scary. I also told her that I learned that you should talk to your kids about what to do if bad content accidentally comes up (turn off the computer) and that you should teach them to tell you about it afterward. She said that she hadn't thought of that and it was a good idea. I think when her kids get older she will teach them to tell her if they see something questionable on the internet.

TPACK Report

links to my technology lesson plans

http://sites.google.com/site/sabrinatech/sabrina-huyett-science-lesson

http://sites.google.com/site/sabrinatech/sabrina-huyett-literacy-lesson

http://sites.google.com/site/sabrinatech/sabrina-h --math lesson plan (I don't know why the URL is different)

Enjoy!

Videos

I really like the idea of using a class website from the first video. I think it's really cool that she collaborated with a teacher in another state to contribute information about the subject matter to the website.

I also really like the second video. I never thought of creating a multi-media book before. I think it's a great idea to incorporate so many skills and core curriculum into one project. I really like that the students are being taught how to use technology at an early age and that they are teaching one another when someone doesn't understand how to draw on the computer.

I like how the second video incorporates so many different kinds of technology. The students learn how to use software, how to use the internet, and not to infringe on copyright rules. I also like that the technology is used to teach a core concept--they aren't simply learning how to use technology for technology's sake, it's to learn about habitats. I also enjoyed that the parents came to watch all of the multimedia presentations that the student groups put together. I think it is important to connect the students' families to what they're learning in school as much as possible.

I would say that the most important thing I learned about using technology with children is that they can do it. I underestimated the children's abilities to operate computers; these videos prove that they can do it. I also learned that technology can be an effective means of teaching other core subject material.

Technology at my school

There is a decent amount of technology available at the school, however, most of the teachers don't really know how to use it and thus don't take complete advantage of it. There is a projector shared between my classroom and the one next door, but neither teacher has used it before. Most of the technology is shared and available for scheduling, like the t.v. and digital camera. There are two computer labs that can be scheduled as well. There wasn't any technology specific to math and science that I saw. There is an overhead projector (which does get used!) individual to our classroom. So for my technology lesson plan at this school I would probably use the computer projector or the computer lab.

Yes, I did do parts 1-3 of this week's assignment.